p1.md

P1: User Research

Project Idea

Our project is to create a app that streamlines the experience of checking in, keeping track/registering for classes, and using equipment at a general recreation center. Depending on user wants, this app could also be web based, track exercises, and have an emergency notification system.

This app would be used by people attending, or wishing to attend a recreation center. Our target age are people aged from 16-60+. We target this age because it is likely children will have their guardians use the app instead.

The app will provide standard information about the recreation center (opening/closing times, closures etc.) in addition to functionality that will allow users to register and track exercise classes.

Stakeholders and Users

Here is a list of stakeholders and their relative properties.

Customers (Inexperienced)

• Have not made use of the recreation facilities before.

• Unknowledgeable about gym equipment.

• May be familiar with other recreation centers.

• Unfamiliar with the rules.

• Customers (Experienced)

• Current users of the facilities.

• Familiar with the rules, and processes of the recreation center.

Trainers

• Familiar with policies and procedures

• Different areas of specialty.

Staff Of The Recreation Centre

• Familiar with policies and procedures

• Many different roles/positions

U of C Administration

• Likely funding such an App to be created.

• App should adhere to policy

Here is a list of more specific stakeholders encompassed by the previous list.

• University Students using Facilities

• Professors using Facilities

• Kids/Parents (Could be Low on time)

• Individuals with disabilities

• • Blind (Will have issues using a app/website without annotation)
• • Cerebral Palsy (Difficulty with small buttons)
• • Autism (Difficulty with attention)

• Foreigners (Difficulty with English)

• Elderly (Require very straight forward interfaces)

• Staff using Facilities (Require the ability to edit the content in the app)

• Staff Managing Facilities

User Research Methods

To get a better idea of what the current wants/issues of the users attending the recreation center, we conducted three different user research methods:

Rapid Ethnography

Through this approach we can directly ask administration and students what they like/dislike about the current system. It helps us be exposed to problems we wouldn't be aware about prior to our visit. While the survey is another good method of doing this, it tends to funnel people into only choices we can think of. This is where the Ethnography shines, it allows use to be exposed to unique ideas.

Survey

We went with a survey to broaden our search for requirements. While this method allows us to collect even more data, it might end up funneling people into choosing choices we laid out. For this reason, we focused our questions primarily on the usage of the recreation center.

Secondary Sources (Reviews)

The purpose of Secondary sources (Google reviews): By checking reviews, we can start to deduce what people like and dislike about their recreation center systems. Reviews tend to be more on the extremes of either side, so it can be a helpful indicator of what is worth the most to users of the facilities.

User Research Method 1: Rapid Ethnography

A user research method we used was rapid ethnography. In this approach, our team decided to immerse ourselves in the recreation center environment by observing the users and how they went about using the facilities. In addition we asked a different set of questions for the staff and the users. However there was some overlap in the nature of the questions for both parties such as what improvements they would like to see in the recreation center.

Much of the information gained from the method helped to reinforce some of the results from our survey research method. For example the fact that the afternoons are often the busiest time, however we learned that the early mornings are also very busy. This result was something that we did not obtain from our other research methods. In addition we learned that on Saturday much of the individuals use the recreation center for the swimming pool. Furthermore we learned that there is in fact a large number of children who attend the recreation center with their parents or to attend summer programs. Majority of the tasks that the staff perform are with regards to the computer system of the recreation center, only a few tasks are still used with pencil and paper. The responsibility of the staff are to provide rentals for the users and to give day passes to users without identification. When we spoke with the users and not the staff, we gained a new perspective regarding the recreation center. For the most part they seemed to have positive views, however we did learn that most of the center's shortcomings were from the program scheduling. Often times a user would not know how to sign up for a program or even what the schedule for a particular facility was. We understand that asking individuals in person will have some drawbacks but in unison with our other research methods, the data gained from in-person interviews proved very valuable.

We interviewed several people in and around the active living center with the following questions:

To Staff:

• How busy does the rec center get sometimes?
• When is it the busiest?
• When do you end up the busiest?
• How does the current system work?
• How would I register for a class?
• How would I get involved in a sports team?
• How do you guys work with folks with disabilities?
• Do you get many kids in the programs?
• Safety:
• When incidents happen, what’s the workflow to address them?
• Daily Work:
• What do you find yourself doing the most?
• What pages do you visit the most?
• If you could change any part your daily work, what it be?
• How much work is done with pen and paper?
• Rentals:
• How would I rent equipment?
• Do people honor the rental policy often enough?
• What do people rent the most?
• Is there any part of the process you wish you could change?
• What part of the process is the easiest in your opinion?
• What’s the most common compliment you have received?
• What’s the most common complaint?

To Students:

• What facilities do you typically use?
• How often do you come to use the rec-center?
• How does the current check-in system work?
• What do you like about the rec center?
• What do you like about the system (checking in, sign up) ?
• What do you think could be improved about the rec center?
• If you could change any part the current system, what would you do?
• How busy does the rec center get sometimes?
• Classes:
• How do you find about what exercise classes are available?
• How would I enroll in an exercise class?
• If you’ve registered for a class before, how did you do it?
• What method did you use, online, in person etc.
• Rentals:
• How would I rent equipment?
• Are they really strict when renting stuff?
• How do you track what to return?

User Research Method 2: Survey

We decided one of our user research methods should be a survey. The motivation behind choosing this research method was to gain insight about the general user of the recreation center. While the sample size of our Google form was not large by any means, there was still insightful information that we were able to extract.

We decided to take a holistic approach for conducting this user research method. Our survey was designed to cover a broad range of simple questions regarding individuals and their usage of recreation centers. We began by asking how many times a week the user goes to a recreation center, and also asked about which facilities they were most likely to use. From these two questions we learned that average person who works or is going to school is most likely to visit the recreation center is during the afternoon(11:00AM -5:00PM). They would most likely use the weight-lifting equipment alone. Thus the other facilities serve as non-primary choices for the users of the rec center. This result was somewhat expected because we can reason that the afternoon is the most convenient time for someone to exercise. However, we expected more of a spread distribution regarding the different facilities offered.

Furthermore, we asked the interviewees how they felt about the programs offered at rec center (on a scale 5-1). The result averaged at about 2.8. there are a few reasons that might have caused this low rating, it may be a single dominant factor or a combination of a few. For example the users may not be aware of what programs are actually offered, or perhaps the programs may not be very worthwhile. To discover why, further investigation will be required. We came across some issues with the survey; we could never be sure if what the user entered truly reflected how they felt about the rec center. This short-coming would be covered by another one of our research methods. In specific, utilizing secondary sources. Which involves studying Google reviews for the recreation center.

User Research Method 3: ...

We conducted a look into secondary sources by searching reviews of popular recreation centers.

Our findings from this method:

1. Time of using some facilities which make it hard to do what they want as they planned for.
2. people look for classes, and equipment that are available at the rec center and book what they want.
3. some people come with their friends to use the facilities and they don’t know about the availability of trainers and classes that are sometimes free to join or ask for.

Summary of this method:

In the secondary sources like Google reviews we got some of what we need. Most of reviewers talked about the gym, how busy it’s and how good or bad its equipments are. Some people explained their uses of the classes and how interesting are these classes. However, about 95% of people complained about the busy hours of the gym and how much time they waste waiting to use an equipment. Nobody talked about the pool, basketball court or tennis court under Google reviews for U of C active living but this doesn’t make them unimportant. Some people praised the equipment they rented from the rec center. People context of use:

1. Search for classes
2. Search for equipment to rent
3. Look up operation hours
4. Look up type of facilities and machines availability

Reflections on User Research

This is mostly present under the last 3 headers.

We found that a lot of people complained that the gym was very busy. So we feel looking into a method to track and report that in the app would be very beneficial.

The users of the gym seemed to vary quite a bit. A couple of them stated they do everything, while others knew the rec centre offered classes, but never signed up for one. Having a method to more easily spread news of the programs would also be beneficial.

It was difficult to extract issues from the staff's perspective. In their opinion, the current computer system has met "all their needs", and they can get a programmer to modify it to suit them. It appears as though we would need to get closer to extract the more sutble nuiances they have with the system.

Task Descriptions

The following are several task descriptions for features we're interested in supporting in the app so far.

Registering/Tracking Classes:

• A 42 year old woman named Samantha recently got her phone for her birthday. After being invited by a friend to a yoga class at 2:30pm at her local recreation center. She wanted to attend, so she decided to download the recreation center app in order to register and pay for her friend's exercise class.
• John, A 16 year old boy, has many friends who attend the recreation center. has recently downloaded the recreation center app to sign up for a youth pool event. After signing up, his friends caved and decided not to go. As he doesn't want to go alone, John opens the app to unregister from his event and receive a refund.
• Ralph is a 20 year old man who works out regularly at the gym. The recreation center recently expanded with new equipment and he wants to be one of the first to try it. He was one of the first people to be notified of a free orientation session at 9:30 am next Friday. However, he forgot what time the orientation was at. He opens up the app to find when it is.
• Nabil is a 32 year old man who has been going to the gym for ten years. He loves to work out at the gym every weekend, but dislikes that it's sometimes too crowded for him to use the spin cycle. After hearing from a friend, he hears that the recreation center tracks how busy the different departments are. He opens the app to check on how many people are currently attending the gym.

Membership/Check in/Using Equipment:

• Sandra is a 30 year old woman who wants to buy a yearly gym membership. Instead of going to the front desk to register for a pass, she wants to use her phone as a access card instead. Sandra opens the app to purchase this membership.
• Josh is a 22 year old student who has never been to the gym before. He has watched others lift the weights before, but wonders about the proper techniques to lift the specific weights in the gym. Thankfully, he heard from the front desk that the app would be able to show him videos with the proper technique. Josh downloads the app to view the videos.

Staff:

• Noel is a fitness instructor who runs a yoga class on Fridays. However, she mostly uses her phone for music, so a recreation center app is a new experience for her. She wishes to add the details of her class to the app so more people can register in it. She downloads the app in order to set up her class.